SAISD closure vote expected this month

It has quieted down on the school closure front since San Antonio Independent School District officials wrapped up a series of public meetings about the issue last month. Trustees are expected to vote on a long-term restructuring plan this month, but officials have not yet pinned down a date.

SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price said Tuesday morning the vote isn’t on the agenda for the Oct. 19 meeting but should happen during the latter part of the month.

SAISD, which has about 55,000 students, has lost nearly one-third of its enrollment during the past four decades. It closed six schools in 2008 (two of those sites were converted to college-prep schools for the 2008-09 school year) and warned there would be more closures. That’s where the three restructuring proposals come in.

The proposed changes, which include closing schools, tweaking their grade configurations and totally changing the grades served, would be carried out over a decade.

The district took the proposals to the community during eight meetings in August and September. The advisory committee — a group of community members — that drafted the proposals reconvened to come up with a single plan to forward to district administrators based on the public input. It was a contentious process to the very end.

The plan that Superintendent Robert Durón puts before the school board later this month could look different than the committee’s.

Here is a list of stories that highlight developments in SAISD’s school closure efforts: